Post by schlager7 on Apr 19, 2010 23:22:55 GMT -6
Members of Double T Fencing Club qualify for national level
Daily Toreador > News
By Kelsey Heckel
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Updated: Monday, April 19, 2010
The Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center hosted the 2010 Plains Texas Division National Qualifiers fencing tournament Saturday, during which seven members of the Double T Fencing club qualified to move forward to national level.
Qualifiers are separated in categories by age, sex, weapon and division.
“Everyone is put in a pool in their category,” said Aaron Clements, Double T Fencing coach and adjunct professor in the Texas Tech School of Law. “That determines their rank. Then everyone competes in direct elimination rounds and from there comes a winner.”
Qualifiers for the epee category are Travis Ferrell and Meagan Feik in Division 2 epee; Hanson Wallace, Jeffery McGreggor and Mike Gimmell in Division 3 epee; and Aaron Clements in veteran epee.
Foil qualifiers are Feik in Division 2 foil and Travis Ferrell in Division 2 and 3 men’s senior foil.
Saber qualifiers are Feik and Clements in Division 2 saber and Wallace and Ferrell in Division 3 saber.
Each of the three weapons have different rules for scoring, according to the USA Olympic Fencing Web site.
In epee, touches are scored only with the point of the blade; however, the entire body, head to toe, is a valid target. Foil is similar to epee in what part of the blade scores, but instead of the entire body being valid, only the torso can be touched to score. The major difference between saber and the other two weapons is that saberists can score with the edge of their blade as well as the point. In saber, the target area is the entire body above the waist, excluding the hands.
“In the elimination rounds, the first person to 15 touches wins,” Wallace said. “That singles down to two people and then they compete to 15 touches for the final winner.”
The winner of each round qualifies to move to the summer nationals in Atlanta on July 4 through July 13 at the World Congress Center.
“It’s nice to have Tech fencers step up and qualify,” said Ferrell, a junior history and political science dual major from San Antonio. “The better our fencers get makes all of us better when we practice against each other. I’ve seen the program go from nothing when I joined to this, it’s great.”
The only female fencer to qualify didn’t have to compete against anyone at the competition due to a lack of female fencers.
“I wish I could have actually fenced someone,” said Feik, a junior psychology major from Arlington. “Since no one else showed up I qualified in all three events for nationals.”
Many of the qualifying fencers said they might not go to the national competition because of the high cost.
“Each event costs about $120 to register,” Feik said. “If you add hotel costs, flights and food on top of that, it gets pretty costly.”
======================================================
Ravis Ferrell, left, a junior history and political science dual major from San Antonio, faces off in a bout against a member of the Amarillo College Fencing Association during the Double T Fencing Club’s Fencing Competition Saturday in the Robery H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center.
Daily Toreador > News
By Kelsey Heckel
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Updated: Monday, April 19, 2010
The Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center hosted the 2010 Plains Texas Division National Qualifiers fencing tournament Saturday, during which seven members of the Double T Fencing club qualified to move forward to national level.
Qualifiers are separated in categories by age, sex, weapon and division.
“Everyone is put in a pool in their category,” said Aaron Clements, Double T Fencing coach and adjunct professor in the Texas Tech School of Law. “That determines their rank. Then everyone competes in direct elimination rounds and from there comes a winner.”
Qualifiers for the epee category are Travis Ferrell and Meagan Feik in Division 2 epee; Hanson Wallace, Jeffery McGreggor and Mike Gimmell in Division 3 epee; and Aaron Clements in veteran epee.
Foil qualifiers are Feik in Division 2 foil and Travis Ferrell in Division 2 and 3 men’s senior foil.
Saber qualifiers are Feik and Clements in Division 2 saber and Wallace and Ferrell in Division 3 saber.
Each of the three weapons have different rules for scoring, according to the USA Olympic Fencing Web site.
In epee, touches are scored only with the point of the blade; however, the entire body, head to toe, is a valid target. Foil is similar to epee in what part of the blade scores, but instead of the entire body being valid, only the torso can be touched to score. The major difference between saber and the other two weapons is that saberists can score with the edge of their blade as well as the point. In saber, the target area is the entire body above the waist, excluding the hands.
“In the elimination rounds, the first person to 15 touches wins,” Wallace said. “That singles down to two people and then they compete to 15 touches for the final winner.”
The winner of each round qualifies to move to the summer nationals in Atlanta on July 4 through July 13 at the World Congress Center.
“It’s nice to have Tech fencers step up and qualify,” said Ferrell, a junior history and political science dual major from San Antonio. “The better our fencers get makes all of us better when we practice against each other. I’ve seen the program go from nothing when I joined to this, it’s great.”
The only female fencer to qualify didn’t have to compete against anyone at the competition due to a lack of female fencers.
“I wish I could have actually fenced someone,” said Feik, a junior psychology major from Arlington. “Since no one else showed up I qualified in all three events for nationals.”
Many of the qualifying fencers said they might not go to the national competition because of the high cost.
“Each event costs about $120 to register,” Feik said. “If you add hotel costs, flights and food on top of that, it gets pretty costly.”
======================================================
Ravis Ferrell, left, a junior history and political science dual major from San Antonio, faces off in a bout against a member of the Amarillo College Fencing Association during the Double T Fencing Club’s Fencing Competition Saturday in the Robery H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center.